England 0 Italy 0: Three Lions pay the penalty

Wayne Rooney can't get a clear header at the goal because of Ignazio Abate's challenge

England 0 Italy 0 (a.e.t., Italy win 4-2 on pens)

For the sixth time in seven shoot-outs in major competitions the Three Lions failed to keep their nerve.

But, to be brutally honest, had England won it would have been a travesty as they were totally outplayed by Italy.

Referee Pedro Proenca had seen one team from our shores snatch a famous victory on May 19 when Chelsea somehow were victorious in a spot-kick decider in the Champions League Final, despite being totally overwhelmed by Bayern Munich.

That night in Munich the stats were incredible. The Germans had 26 attempts on goal and eight on target to Chelsea's six and four.

Forget those, for they were nothing compared to the staggering ones from this Euro 2012 quarter-final.

Italy accumulated a mind-boggling 35 - 20 of them on target - compared to England's nine and four.

It was wave after wave of attacks from the men in blue shirts, crashing on the white shirts of England.

It was not a night for chickens in Kiev and Roy Hodgson's men were so brave, particularly central defenders John Terry and Joleon Lescott, as they held out for two hours.

But in the shoot-out they could not finish it against the odds. It looked good after Riccardo Montolivo missed the target with Italy's second kick.

But Ashley Young hit the bar and Ashley Cole had his effort saved by Gianluigi Buffon, allowing the magnifi-cent Andrea Pirlo, Antonio Nocerino and Alessandro Diamanti to convert for a 4-2 victory, after Mario Balotelli had scored first for Italy and Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney replied for England.

There will be no major recriminations for Hodgson and his men, although there will be plenty of inquiries about how often penalties were practised.

Manchester City's Balotelli was cool from the spot, but had enough chances to score a double hat-trick during the game. Italy dominated started from the off and in the third minute Daniele De Rossi could not believe it when his stunning half-volley, with the outside of his left boot from almost 30 yards, smacked against a post.

Glen Johnson had a chance, but could only poke at Buffon, while Rooney - and you have to wonder if Pele might sue Hodgson for comparing him to the England star - had a couple of great headed opportunities, but fluffed them both, as he did an overhead attempt right at the end of normal-time.

Terry did brilliantly to stop Balotelli scoring, as did Lescott before the break, and then the ineffective Danny Welbeck fluffed his shot when a rare bit of Rooney class set him up nicely.

With Germany awaiting in the semi-finals in Warsaw on Thursday, England needed to be secure after the break.

But a poor Joe Hart punch in the 48th minute was reworked back into the box by Claudio Marchisio to De Rossi, who missed the target from four yards and so did Montolivo from a similar distance soon after.

Johnson joined the defensive heroes, blocking a goal-bound drive from Antonio Nocerino in the 89th minute.

In stoppage-time a Diamanti curling cross evaded everyone and bent in enough to clip the outside of the far post.

It was the last big chance before the drama of the shoot-out, although Nocerino had a close-range header ruled out for offside.

But England were left ashen-faced in the shoot-out as the two Ashleys failed from the spot.

Cole had been successful for Chelsea in Munich, but it was not to be this time as Buffon guessed correctly in diving to his left, after Young had blasted against the underside of the bar.

So England fly home now and Hodgson can think about rebuilding a team with the 30-somethings like Gerrard, Terry, Scott Parker and Cole wondering if their international days are over.

There are some positives to be taken, but the bulldog spirit was not enough this time and the amount of Italian possession -it was 64 per cent to 36 - was a bit of an embarrassment.

Still, most would have settled for leaving the tournament without having suffered a normal defeat.

Sadly, spot-kicks are just not what we are good at when it comes to the England team. And once again the country paid the penalty for that.